The Morning After
by Isabelle Young-Johnson
Summary: Daria and Trent wake up next to eachother after a night of heavy drinking with no idea of what happened or how they got there. Originally published as "The Morning After Nothing" on my site.


The Morning After  
  
by Isabelle Young-Johnson  
  
Daria awoke in stages. At first she was only vaguely aware of a dull throbbing sensation behind her eyes, then the throbbing increased to a whole new level of intensity. She groaned slightly at the migraine, then winced as the noise momentarily increased the pressure . As the pain eased, she slowly tried to open her eyes. The first thing that struck her was how unbelievably cluttered everything was. Next she noticed a full bottle of aspirin on the nightstand. She fumbled for it, popped it open and swallowed a small handful. Then she laid back down and tried to figure out why her head hurt. Her last memory was going out to a bar with Jane to see Mystik Spiral perform.  
Well, at least that explained the migraine. It was her first day back in town and she was already hung over. Jane's new friend Ritchie would be proud. He was always begging her to loosen up. When her headache had subsided a bit, she again opened her eyes and looked around. She fumbled for her glasses and put them on; that's when she realized that she wasn't in her room. She was in a familiar room, but it wasn't hers. She looked around cautiously, trying to get a grasp on where she was. She didn't have to look far; in the bed next to her was the outline of a body moving up and down, breathing gently. Oh God, she thought, What the hell did I get myself into?  
As she stared at the shape, she felt a wave of anxiety crash over her. Her mind began racing a mile a minute. All the possibilities and all the consequences of her actions were running through her head so fast she could hardly breathe. She forced her worries down into the pit of her stomach. She couldn't think about that yet. Right at that moment, the most important thing was figuring out who she was next to. She leaned over, slowly reaching for the blanket covering the other person's head. She grabbed onto the sheets and softly pulled them down. Then she gasped.  
"Trent?!" She exclaimed loudly as his face appeared from beneath the blanket.  
"What?" He groaned, looking up. He squinted drowsily, he saw her, then his eyes flew open as he realized what she had just discovered only moments before. Trent screamed. Then so did Daria. They scrambled to opposite sides of the bed. Then realized they were both naked and pulled the sheets up to cover themselves.  
"Um...we didn't..." Daria stammered her fraction of a question.  
"No, of course not. Did we?" Trent replied.  
"We couldn't have...could we?" Daria returned.  
"I don't remember." Trent finally said, "The last thing I remember is finishing the first set and then I went to see you and Janey and then...nothing."  
"Same here." Daria continued, "We must have been blasted."  
"Yeah," Trent replied, "I feel like hell."  
"There's some aspirin over there..." Daria nodded to indicate the direction of the nightstand.  
"Thanks." he said  
"And Trent?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Do you see my clothes?"  
  
Jane came in while Daria was sitting in the Lane's kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee.  
"Hola sister-in-law." Jane said jokingly, "Have fun last night?"  
Daria scowled slightly at her.  
"Whoa, chill, I'm just teasing. What's gotten into you?"  
Daria sighed.  
"I wish I knew...I have no idea what happened last night-I just know I woke up this morning in bed with...Trent." After this last word, Daria lowered her head and looked down at her coffee cup.  
"Whoa, you're not joking. But you guys did get pretty wasted last night. It was all I could do to keep you-singular-off the bar."  
"And what about Trent?"  
"He didn't even finish the second set. Jesse drove us all here, but before I could get my keys to take you back to Helen and Jake's you two had vanished. I thought maybe you'd walked home and gone to bed." She shrugged. "I guess I was wrong."  
"Wait..." Daria said, "I remember something..." Slowly she was able to grab onto an image. She had tried to get on the bar. She remembered trying to dance to one of the songs. But which one?  
"Daria?" Jane's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, "Earth to Daria. Come in Daria..."  
"I have to go." Daria finally announced. "I should probably go home and let my mom stop worrying about me, plus I have some errands to run."  
Daria then grabbed her jacket and rushed out.  
"But Daria I..." the front door slammed, so Jane finished her sentence to herself "...called her."  
Jane shrugged and grabbed Daria's unfinished cup of coffee and began to drink it when Trent walked in.  
"Hey Janey." He said sheepishly, "I think I might have done something stupid..."  
"No, Trent. Daria's not stupid." Jane said sarcastically, looking at him play angry.  
"Oh." He said in his normal dazed voice, "I guess she told you then..."  
"No, because she doesn't remember anything. Do you happen to have any ideas about what you two did last night?"  
"No." He said quietly, sounding a bit ashamed. "All I remember is playing a new song in the second set and then...nothing. Wait--what do you remember from last night?"  
Now it was Jane's turn to look sheepish.  
"Enough. You did play a new song and Daria was trying to dance to it and then you decided you were done for the night and we all came home."  
"But then how did we end up in bed?"  
Jane suddenly looked down at the coffee.  
"I don't know. I went to bed as soon as we got back. Daria said she'd sleep in Penny's room, so I called her mom to say she'd be out all night and then went to bed. End of story."  
"Oh." Trent replied. "Anymore coffee?"  
  
When she got home, Daria was surprised to learn not only that her mother wasn't worried, but that she hadn't been expected back for a few hours yet. Daria was still too disoriented to ask any questions, however, and retreated to her old room almost immediately. She sat down on her bed and took a deep breath.  
"Okay Morgendorffer," she said out loud to herself. "It's time to face the music."  
She picked up the phone and dialed the number for her gynecologist. She couldn't get an appointment until the following Wednesday, but her OB- GYN said if she was really in a hurry, she could get some tests done at the health department and then she'd examine her as soon as she could.  
God, Daria thought to herself, the health department? That's just so...trashy. Am I really...did we really...is this even real? She could barely bring herself to finish the thoughts. No, she couldn't call the health department. That just felt too much like admitting there was something wrong. Daria wasn't ready to leave her denial yet. She couldn't yet face the facts that she may have had unprotected sex last night with the lead singer of a rock band. A bad rock band.  
Oh my God, I'm a groupie! I'm a damn groupie!  
Daria suddenly felt the urge to talk to someone about this. But who? She owed it to herself not to talk to her family, but Jane had too much of a personal stake in everything to be objective. Then she had it. She picked up the phone and dialed shakily. Then someone answered. Oh thank God, she thought.  
"Hi," she said softly, "Is Ritchie there?" She was told to hang on for a moment. It seemed like forever before the familiar sound of his voice came on the other side.  
"Hello?" he said  
"Hey, it's me."  
"Oh hi Dar!" Ritchie exclaimed cheerfully, "Has your family already driven you insane?"  
"No, worse."  
"Uh-oh, this sounds bad. Should I send chocolate?"  
"No, I don't think that could fix this." she took a deep breath, "Do you remember when I told you about Trent?"  
  
"Ohmygawd Dar!" Ritchie said incredulously when she'd finished her story. "Are you okay? This is really huge!" Ritchie did have a tendency to go into ditzy girly mode whenever something exciting happened. That was probably one of the reasons she liked him; he was sort of the antithesis of her. Three years ago when she was in high school she probably wouldn't have even liked him, but a lot of things had changed since then. She was a different person.  
"I know," She exclaimed. "Trust me, I know. I just wish I knew what happened."  
"Wait-you mean you seriously don't know?"  
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. I told you I don't remember!"  
"But didn't you look for used condoms or anything?"  
"...Crap."  
"Oh Daria..."  
  
Half an hour later, Jane opened her front door to see Daria standing there.  
"Hey Amiga," Jane said teasingly, "Come back for your underwear?"  
"Hi Jane," Daria returned her friends tone. "I just came over to see how your search for your new best friend is going. Anyway, is Trent here?"  
"Yeah, he's in his room. You okay?"  
"Yeah I'm fine. Why?"  
"I don't know, you just look kind of pale..."  
"Paler than usual?"  
"You know what I mean Daria. You don't look too good."  
"I just need to talk to Trent."  
"Okay, fine. You know where he is."  
With that, Jane turned around leaving the door open and she walked back up to her bedroom. Daria walked to the stairs and quickly got to Trent's door. Daria stood in front of the door for a few moments trying to figure out what she would say when she saw him.  
"Hey Trent," she practiced, "How is everything? Yeah, I'm fine, but just out of curiosity did you happen to notice any used prophylactics laying around? God this is going to be hard...Stop talking to yourself."  
Daria took a deep breath and raised her hand to knock just as the door swung open and she found herself face to face with Trent. They both screamed in a startled way. Trent was the first to recover.  
"Daria, hey." He said coolly "I was thinking about calling you, but then I fell asleep. Sorry."  
Trent didn't specify to what he was sorry for, he couldn't really bring himself to mention it.  
"It's okay Trent," Daria said softly, "you've been doing the same thing at least as long as I've known you." she had obviously misunderstood his apology, but he thought better of correcting her.  
"Yeah...sort of." he admitted sheepishly. "So, what's up?"  
"Huh?"  
"You came over for a reason, right?"  
"Oh. Yeah, right..." She blushed a little, "I um, I was wondering if maybe you'd found a...I mean, if anything out of place...of course not that I'd..."  
Trent got her drift and decided to be merciful.  
"Nah Daria, trust me I looked.  
"Yeah, I think that's one of those things that everyone but me would think of."  
There was a short silence.  
"Hey Daria?" Trent said softly,  
"Yeah?"  
"Do you...I mean, about last night..." he rubbed the back of his neck softly and looked away. "What I mean was...if anything did happen-which I'm not saying it did because I don't remember-but...if it was your first time, and even if it wasn't, I'm sorry."  
Daria smiled sweetly, she kind of felt bad about how guilty he obviously felt.  
"It's fine Trent, I never told you this although Jane probably did, but...in high school I had a crush on you."  
"Yeah, I kind of knew."  
"What?" she exclaimed.  
"Give me some credit Daria, I'm not completely oblivious all the time."  
Now Daria blushed again, "Yeah, I'm sorry Trent. You're right. I guess I do underestimate you a lot."  
"S'okay, just lemme know if you see the doctor and what he says."  
"Oh hell, the doctor...I completely forgot. I've gotta go Trent. Later."  
"Later Daria, just please lemme know." There was a sincerity in his eyes that frightened and intrigued her at the same time.  
"Goodbye, Trent."  
  
Daria wasn't sure why, but after seeing Trent she suddenly felt like she had to see the health department and find out exactly what happened. She felt like she owed it to him almost. Then she stopped walking for a second and touched her head, a phrase had suddenly popped into her head while she was thinking about Trent. It seemed like a poem or a song, a bad one at that. You're like a statue except that you're real/You're beautiful enough to be made out of steel.  
What the hell? She thought, That almost sounds like a Mystic Spiral song...oh my God. More of the song started coming back to her as she was walking.  
  
You're like a statue except that you're real You're beautiful enough to be made out of steel. But statues are dead inside and you can actually feel My heart is bleeding and only you can heal  
  
Statue girl you're my work of art The perfect body with the perfect heart Open your eyes to live and see And come and spend your life with me  
  
You're like a statue built around a soul But not on a building or stuck in a hole There's life in your eyes and blood in your veins The paint is your skin and the nails are your pains  
  
Daria had no idea why, but that song was going through her head over and over again. Then it hit her. That was the song that was playing the night before. Trent had been singing that song. Wasn't he? Was she just imagining it? Then it occurred to her that she couldn't have made up something that God-awful all by herself. He had been singing it, but why?  
  
A few hours later, Jane answered the door again.  
"Oh hey Daria. You're looking more cheerful." She said dryly.  
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that Jane. I've just been a little stressed today. You know, last night and all."  
"Yeah, about that...I um...come in and sit down for a second okay?"  
"Um, sure."  
Daria and Jane both moved to the kitchen and sat down at the table. Jane had a sort of mournful look in her eyes.  
"Okay, look Daria I wasn't telling you the entire truth earlier today. I did know you and Trent were going to sleep together. I couldn't really stop you though, I mean you were climbing all over each other."  
"Wait, what?"  
"Look, if I'd known how far this would all go I'd have figured out something to do to stop you two, but seriously. After he sang that one song you were hooked. I always kind of suspected he liked you, especially after graduation, but I didn't think it had gone that far."  
"Wait-song? You mean Statue Girl?"  
"Yeah, you really don't remember what happened, huh?"  
"Jane, if I remembered I wouldn't have snapped at you earlier."  
"I guess that makes sense, you were pretty wasted by the second set. Basically what happened is this. Trent and Mystik Spiral went for the second set. To close they decided to play this new song. They went through the first couple of lines and you really seemed to like it-a lot. You started dancing on the tables and stuff. It was all I could do you keep your shirt on."  
"What?!"  
"Yeah Daria, like I said, you were pretty wasted. Anyway, when the boys got off Trent was pretty wasted by then too, I think he'd gotten hammered before the set. So you two start climbing all over each other on the way back here. I knew your parents couldn't see you like that, so I called and said you were beat and would stay here overnight. I really meant to get you into Penny's room, but by the time I got to where you were you two were already in the bedroom and the door was locked."  
"But it wasn't locked when I woke up this morning."  
"It only locks to the outside."  
"So basically you knew what was going on and lied to me earlier?"  
"Daria I couldn't tell you all that. You'd have never believed me. But Trent told me how you were acting earlier and I knew you had to know. So now you know. I'm sorry I lied."  
"It's okay Jane. You were right. But hey, I have good news."  
"What's that Daria?" Said Trent from the hallway, neither of the girls had noticed his approach.  
"I just got back from the doctor. We didn't have sex, Trent."  
"How can she be so sure?" asked Jane. Daria and Trent both blushed a deep red, "Ah, that's how."  
"Hey Janey," Trent said, "Don't you have an art project or...something to do in your room?" he looked at her questioningly.  
"Um...yeah sure. Big project. Real big project." Jane said standing up and backing out, "Gotta run."  
She left quickly and Trent sat down across from Daria.  
"We've got to talk." he said softly, looking at her.  
"Yeah, I know."  
"I heard what Janey said about what happened, and well..."  
"It's okay Trent. Nothing happened. Remember?"  
"That's not what I was talking about."  
"What do you mean?"  
"Daria, that song...it was about you."  
Daria was to shocked too move. She just sat there in silence, staring vacantly at Trent, afraid to move and to talk.  
"What?" Daria said quietly, holding back her words as though fearing her voice might betray some of the menagerie of emotions that were fighting bitterly for control of her at that moment.  
"I said I wrote that song about you." Trent said softly. He too seemed to be struggling for control of his mind.  
"I thought you didn't remember anything." She forced her voice through a wall of unfamiliar feelings. He words sounded bitter and angry, and she was a little shocked by the venom they contained and that she didn't feel.  
"I didn't." He said shyly, "I mean, not until you came by earlier. Then it started to come back to me. You know, bit by bit."  
"And you didn't bother to call me?"  
He shrugged.  
"I didn't remember anything that you were worried about and besides, I didn't know your number."  
"Jane does." She replied. He had a point and she wasn't entirely sure why she was fighting him on it.  
"I didn't think it was any of her business." He replied, "I kinda thought I should tell you first."  
She nodded slightly to indicate that she accepted his response.  
"So," she said after a few moments of uncomfortable silence, "Why did you write that song?"  
"What do you mean?" he replied.  
"Well, you said the song was about me, so why did you write it?" She was reaching, trying desperately to get him to admit to something that she couldn't be the first to admit to.  
"Look Daria," he said sheepishly, trying to avoid answering, "sometimes there are things that certain people shouldn't get involved with."  
"Oh will you two stop it already?" Jane's voice yelled from the hallway, "If you're both to scared to admit it then I'll say it for you." She stepped into the kitchen, "I didn't think it was any of my business either, so I didn't say anything but Jesus, you two are the best verbal escape artists I've ever seen! Daria, Trent wrote that song because he finally realized how you feel and it made him decide that you were old enough for it to not make him a bad person for liking you. And Trent," here Daria cringed, "Daria's had a thing for you since we were in school. She still does, too even though she's better at hiding it. Now, I'm going back to my eavesdropping and by the way, Ritchie and I would both enjoy some much more entertaining conversation."  
"Wait-Ritchie's here?" Daria exclaimed,  
"He's on the phone," Jane replied, "and very eager to know what he's missing."  
"Who's Ritchie?" Trent asked.  
"He's one of Jane's classmates." Daria stated simply. "Don't worry about it."  
"You know," Trent said, "it's a little busy in here. Daria, do you want to go outside?" The emphasis on her name was clearly meant as a message to Jane to back off.  
Daria got up with him and they walked outside. She stood there on the back porch as he leaned against a railing.  
"So..." Trent said hesitantly.  
"So...?" Daria said expectantly.  
"About what Janey said..." he began. Trent didn't have a chance to finish. Daria had gathered up all her nerve, and she kissed him.  
Trent was initially too shocked to do anything and Daria took this as a sign that he wasn't enjoying it. She started to pull away, but as she did he grabbed her arms and held her near him as he began to return her kiss. His hands slowly began to work their way up to her face as she began kissing him again.  
  
Inside the house, Jane was still on the phone with Ritchie. She was peering out from behind the blinds and watching her best friend kiss her brother while narrating to Ritchie.  
"Damn it." She said, mock angrily, "Ritchie? Yeah, you were right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah I'll pay up. Okay fine. Pizza on me. Next Tuesday. Right. Okay, see you then. Enjoy Montana. Bye." 


End file.
